Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method and an apparatus for generating clock signals, by which a period of time can be subdivided into a desired number of essentially equal-length segments.
Methods and apparatuses of this type are needed for instance, in control devices for triggering electrical devices. Specifically, whenever the triggering must be done as a function of certain states of the device to be controlled, for instance as a function of the position of a rotating part of the device to be controlled.
It is true that the device to be controlled can signal the attainment of certain states to the control device. However, it frequently happens that the generation of the control signals that are to be output to the device to be controlled must be done at times that do not coincide with the times at which the control device is informed of the attainment of a particular state.
One way to overcome the problem is to increase the number of states whose attainment is signaled to the control device. However, often this cannot readily be done. For instance, if the position of a rotating shaft is to be detected, then the positions of the shaft whose attainment can be signaled to the control device is limited for practical reasons. For instance, the shaft has a mutual spacing of x degrees, where x, as will be appreciated, cannot be made arbitrarily small.
Another possibility for overcoming the aforementioned problem is to generate a clock signal in the control device, by which signal the time periods, which are located between the signaling of the attainment of certain states of the device to be controlled, can be subdivided into a plurality of segments. However, the generation of these additional clock signals entails relatively major effort and expense and moreover cannot be optimally adapted to given conditions.